1 electron = 1 photon?

Simplifying, assuming a modern B&W silicon sensor without a CFA or other filtering and 100% fill factor, if we see one electron produced at the output of a photosite, can we assume that it was the result of one photon making it through to silicon - and that the probability of it dislodging an electron is the Charge Collection Efficiency (QE) of the semiconductor at the wavelength of the incoming photon, so that for a given Exposure

If the visible spectrum is between 380 and 760 nm, with a near-infrared photon having half the frequency/energy of a near-ultraviolet photon therefore burying deeper into silicon, does the following responsivity curve merely represent QE at various silicon depths?

Relative Number of electrons Generated as a Function of Impinging Photon Wavelength

Or could the fact that the responsivity at 760nm is more than 3 times that at 380nm mean that, for instance, sometimes 1 photon produces two electrons?

Simplifying, assuming a modern B&W silicon sensor without a CFA or other filtering and 100% fill factor, if we see one electron produced at the output of a photosite, can we assume that it was the result of one photon making it through to silicon - and that the probability of it dislodging an electron is the Charge Collection Efficiency (QE) of the semiconductor at the wavelength of the incoming photon, so that for a given Exposure

If the visible spectrum is between 380 and 760 nm, with a near-infrared photon having half the frequency/energy of a near-ultraviolet photon therefore burying deeper into silicon, does the following responsivity curve merely represent QE at various silicon depths? Or could the fact that the responsivity at 760nm is more than 3 times that at 380nm mean that, for instance, sometimes 1 photon produces two electrons?

At 100% quantum efficiency (1 electron per photon), you get 0.645 A/W at 800 nm, but only 0.323 A/W at 400 nm. Your graph shows the quantum efficiency falling from around 84% at 600-800 nm, to around 53% at 400 nm.

In other words, less than 100% QE, with peak performance at 600-800 nm.

At 100% quantum efficiency (1 electron per photon), you get 0.645 A/W at 800 nm, but only 0.323 A/W at 400 nm. Your graph shows the quantum efficiency falling from around 84% at 600-800 nm, to around 53% at 400 nm.

In other words, less than 100% QE, with peak performance at 600-800 nm.

HTH

Very helpful as always, Alan, I assume this holds on average. Can there ever be a case where a single particularly energetic photon results in two electrons being produced by the photodiode?

It seems to me that nobody is answering the very interesting question at the end of Jack Hogan's original post. So I will repeat it because I am curious about that too:

Can 1 photon sometimes produce two electrons?

from the graph the response is never exceeding 1.

Also photos are created by electrons dropping from higher energy shells to lower ones.

their energy levels are fix, the same exact amount of energy would be needed to reverse this process at the other end.

but this never happens at 100%, it would seem that more energetic photos have better success rate, but never will the exceed the 100% rate.

also, electron on electron shells are expressed in percentage of existence, we can never be sure as to say an event took place, we can only express it as a percentage, such is the natural of things at the quantum level.

Very helpful as always, Alan, I assume this holds on average. Can there ever be a case where a single particularly energetic photon results in two electrons being produced by the photodiode?

the sensor material must have being chosen to respond well to visible lights, a much higher energy photon will react differently to this material. that's, no transference of energy would take place, photon is not destroyed its energy not released to push electrons to a higher shell.

and hence the graph shows drop off in response in those undesirable wave lengths.

also it is impossible for one photo to push out two electrons.

quantum physics states photons have a fixed energy state, they are discrete and not analogs. An interaction will release all of its energy not part of it.

also, electron on electron shells are expressed in percentage of existence, we can never be sure as to say an event took place, we can only express it as a percentage, such is the natural of things at the quantum level.

Good point, looper1234, it's a stochastic process, right? So does it really make sense to talk about photons as integers? Shouldn't we really be perfectly happy with floating point, as in 8.62 photons producing 5.85 electrons, then converted to 1.26 ADUs?

also, electron on electron shells are expressed in percentage of existence, we can never be sure as to say an event took place, we can only express it as a percentage, such is the natural of things at the quantum level.

Good point, looper1234, it's a stochastic process, right? So does it really make sense to talk about photons as integers? Shouldn't we really be perfectly happy with floating point, as in 8.62 photons producing 5.85 electrons, then converted to 1.26 ADUs?

There might a certain chance of an additional photon reaching the sensor or not... but when you go to measure it, either it was there or it wasn't.

It seems to me that nobody is answering the very interesting question at the end of Jack Hogan's original post. So I will repeat it because I am curious about that too:

Can 1 photon sometimes produce two electrons?

from the graph the response is never exceeding 1.

But that graph shows an average for many photons. It doesn't show the possible outcomes for just one photon. If it did, there would not be any values between 0 and 1 since you can't get a half electron from exactly one photon.

Also photos are created by electrons dropping from higher energy shells to lower ones.

their energy levels are fix, the same exact amount of energy would be needed to reverse this process at the other end.

Simplifying, assuming a modern B&W silicon sensor without a CFA or other filtering and 100% fill factor, if we see one electron produced at the output of a photosite, can we assume that it was the result of one photon making it through to silicon - and that the probability of it dislodging an electron is the Charge Collection Efficiency (QE) of the semiconductor at the wavelength of the incoming photon, so that for a given Exposure

If the visible spectrum is between 380 and 760 nm, with a near-infrared photon having half the frequency/energy of a near-ultraviolet photon therefore burying deeper into silicon, does the following responsivity curve merely represent QE at various silicon depths?

Relative Number of electrons Generated as a Function of Impinging Photon Wavelength

Or could the fact that the responsivity at 760nm is more than 3 times that at 380nm mean that, for instance, sometimes 1 photon produces two electrons?

Jack

I think you would have to include interaction cross section coefficients into your model. They are not part of the charge collection efficiency but they are a function of the material (Z atomic number) and photon energy (i.e. wavelength).

Regarding double electron emission from on single photon, yes it is possible, but I don't think it has been done on CCD or CMOS material.

At 100% quantum efficiency (1 electron per photon), you get 0.645 A/W at 800 nm, but only 0.323 A/W at 400 nm. Your graph shows the quantum efficiency falling from around 84% at 600-800 nm, to around 53% at 400 nm.

In other words, less than 100% QE, with peak performance at 600-800 nm.

HTH

Very helpful as always, Alan, I assume this holds on average. Can there ever be a case where a single particularly energetic photon results in two electrons being produced by the photodiode?

If the photon has sufficient energy, more than one electron can be released. PhotonTrapper has identified possible mechanisms, such as double electron photoemission. I don't believe this or other mechanisms make a significant contribution when conventional silicon photodiodes exposed to visible light.

At much higher (X- and gamma-ray) photon energies, Compton scattering can release multiple electrons as a photon propagates through the material. At each scattering event, an electron-hole pair is created, and the photon loses some energy. Consult Storm & Israel's tables for the dependence on atomic number and photon energy if you don't have access to code like this.

A different mechanism operates in an avalanche photodiode (APD). Arguably there are two processes operating sequentially here. An electron-hole pair is first generated by photo-absorption. APDs operate at much higher bias voltages than conventional photodiodes, and the carriers are accelerated by the bias field, releasing further electron-hole pairs by avalanche multiplication.

Impact ionisation is also exploited by electron-multiplying EMCCD detectors, to produce multiple electrons from a single absorbed photon.

Several people have posted asking about "particularly energetic photons." The more energy a photon has, the more its wavelength shifts toward the blue. So there is no such thing as particularly energetic 633 nm (red) photon for instance. All photons at a given wavelength have the same energy.

There is a good summary of the photoelectric effect in silicon in Chapter 2 of Janesick's book on photon transfer. From the band gap IR cutoff at 1.0868 um to 400 nm, covering near IR through visible spectrum, only a single conduction band electron is generated per photon absorbed. For photon energy greater than 3.1 eV (< 400 nm wavelength), the photoelectron produced can have enough energy to free additional electrons by collisions; 3.1eV is more than twice the Si band gap due to the momentum conservation condition with non-direct band gap semiconductor materials mentioned earlier in this thread. For photon energy above 10 eV, the average number of electrons generated by a single photon (quantum yield) is given by the photon energy (h nu) / 3.65 eV, where 3.65 eV is the energy required to generate an electon-hole pair in Si. Hard X-ray photons, above about 10 keV, have small collision cross sections with low probability for interaction with Si.

PhotonTrapper wrote: I think you would have to include interaction cross section coefficients into your model. They are not part of the charge collection efficiency but they are a function of the material (Z atomic number) and photon energy (i.e. wavelength).

Regarding double electron emission from on single photon, yes it is possible, but I don't think it has been done on CCD or CMOS material.

Regards,

Thank you PhotonTrapper. I guess this means that if you get more than one electron it is due to a secondary process.

There is a good summary of the photoelectric effect in silicon in Chapter 2 of Janesick's book on photon transfer. From the band gap IR cutoff at 1.0868 um to 400 nm, covering near IR through visible spectrum, only a single conduction band electron is generated per photon absorbed. For photon energy greater than 3.1 eV (< 400 nm wavelength), the photoelectron produced can have enough energy to free additional electrons by collisions; 3.1eV is more than twice the Si band gap due to the momentum conservation condition with non-direct band gap semiconductor materials mentioned earlier in this thread. For photon energy above 10 eV, the average number of electrons generated by a single photon (quantum yield) is given by the photon energy (h nu) / 3.65 eV, where 3.65 eV is the energy required to generate an electon-hole pair in Si. Hard X-ray photons, above about 10 keV, have small collision cross sections with low probability for interaction with Si.

Very good explanation, Gerry, it fits well with my gut feeling (which is not always a good thing :-)). Janesick's book has come up in a number of discussions, I am going to have to get me a copy.

So, as it pertains to sensors in widely available modern DSLRs, can we assume that in practice multiple electron generation happens very seldom?

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